THE NEIGHBOURHOOD ACADEMY
Community participation and credited adult education

Purpose
The Neighbourhood Academy offers adult education in connection with specific projects and activities in local residential areas. The overall object of the Academy is to promote development in local residential areas, strengthen community participation and develop the competencies of the individual according to his or her own wishes and requirements. Project networks focused on specific projects and activities are established on the basis of the visions of the people in the community. In the project networks, residents will receive formal as well as informal training, become familiar with active participation and be motivated for further education and training. This will create a platform for increased community participation - in and outside the local residential area, in community associations and in the job market.

The objectives are:
- to map out residents' wishes for improvements and activities in their local area through individual interviews and focus groups
- to establish project networks for the purpose of implementing the wishes as specific projects
- to clarify residents' needs for development of competencies for the purpose of carrying out the projects
- to set up relevant training programmes, both formal and informal
- to bring about tangible improvements through the projects
- to increase residents' awareness of the possibility of achieving formal and informal competencies through project participation.

Background
The Neighbourhood Academy is an initiative rooted in a long-standing tradition of adult education being vital for participants' committing role in society. The Academy, like the Copenhagen Adult Education Institute, has its roots in the training and qualification development of the liberal adult education programmes, which has been carried out in co-operative societies and unions, at folk high schools and in workers' study circles since the end of the 1800s and later at night schools, daytime folk high schools, language schools etc.
Neighbourhood Academy participants are recruited in the local residential area, and activities are embedded in its specific projects. Associations such as co-operative societies and unions no longer embrace an audience as wide as they used to (Kristiansen & Hulgård 2002), and many citizens, especially residents in high-risk residential areas, are not affiliated with this type of communities. Their marginalisation is not only characterised by their weak financial position and their poor affiliation with or low status in the labour market. Today, the marginalisation is often cultural and symbolic and pertains to limited education, limited possibilities of being included in the opinion-making process and/or a lack of recognition from the society of which they are part (Wacquant 1996, Bourdieu 1999). The Neighbourhood Academy is for all local residents including people who are affected by the new types of marginalisation and have a minimal connection to the labour market, limited education and in some cases a minority background.
The use of competence development and education in the promotion of community participation and resident democracy is inspired by projects carried out in Chicago and California in the 1990s. The objects of these projects were to bring about new hope for society (Imagine Chicago) and participatory democracy designed specifically to improve the quality of public discourse (Cupertino Community Project, California) (Meisner 2002). These projects inspired similar trial projects in communities closer to us, for example short-term projects in the municipality of Randers (Meisner 2002) and the German municipality of Viersen (Kristiansen & Hulgård 2002), which used intensive talks with citizens in the process of municipal planning, and longer-term development projects in the residential areas of Hageby in Norrköbing, Norway, and Nørremarken in Vejle (see www.dittnyahageby.nu and www.noerremarken.dk). Experience from the above-mentioned projects shows that it is possible to work with resolve and encourage citizens to get involved in and commit to their community. The projects shared some characteristics; they were all based on "the best stories, hopes and wishes of the community residents" (Meisner 2002) and they were approached based on the resources of the residents, who were given a voice and responsibility in the projects.
The Neighbourhood Academy also kicks off by involving residents in the definition of requirements, wishes and hopes. The focal point is adult education. Wishes and requirements are specified and made possible through qualification development training of the participants for the purpose of their carrying out community projects. The Academy thus benefits both the individual and the community - the individual develops his or her competencies while contributing to the achievement of common objectives. It also aims to improve the social and cultural capital in the local area, i.e. strengthen the social networks and heighten the educational level. This way, adult education plays an active part in the translation of wishes into specific projects and activities and in the advancement of resident community participation.

The Neighbourhood Academy's target groups
The primary target group of the project is adult residents in the community who will receive training and gain experience through active participation.
Its secondary target group is educational institutions, teachers etc. who will gain access to tools and models for offering education, training and competence development which support the community and resident participation in local residential areas.

The Neighbourhood Academy's players
The Academy was initiated by the Copenhagen Adult Education Institute, and relevant adult education institutions contribute as partners. Community representatives participate in the sparring.
In addition, the following are affiliated with the project:
Interviewers employed and trained by the project.
Project network leaders employed and trained by the project.
Teachers from the adult education institutions' regular education programmes: adult education centres, language and special training schools, vocational colleges, bachelor degree programme schools etc. The teachers have multiple functions (educators, tutors, sounding boards) and work in cross-disciplinary teams.
Education institutions ensure formal credit transfers and perform actual competence assessments.
Education leader with the overall educational responsibility for the Academy, the training of interviewers and project network leaders, supplementary training of teachers from the regular adult education programmes and the co-ordination of the educational activities.
Project leader from the Copenhagen Adult Education Institute in charge of the day-to-day management of projects.
Reference group of representatives from the community, the project networks and the education institutions involved along with the education leader and project leader.

Educational principles of the Neighbourhood Academy
The project's educational philosophy is based on dialogue teaching. We believe that by better mastering dialogue, we can bring about equal and respectful encounters in spite of differences. To us, dialogue is a philosophy and a means of achieving involvement and change. We work with an appreciative and resource-based attitude to development. We believe that our choice of focus will influence our relations and reality.
The projects' major educational principles are participant direction, problem orientation and varied working methods. The building blocks of the teaching are the participants' need for self-direction, the solidary participation of the adult educators and relevant subject contents, which facilitate important learning processes. The shift from knowledge to competence increasingly requires the classes to be organised in a way that allows participants to reflect and experiment with different ways of applying what they learn in practice.
The educational practice of the project emphasises learning environments which challenge each participant and encourage them to explore new ways of thinking and acting.
We choose varied forms of working and learning which allow for the different dimensions of learning.
The educational vision of the project is to create learning communities which encourage assertiveness, responsibility and increased resilience allowing residents to follow their dreams and participate actively in society - on the basis of the "action breeds change" principle.

The Neighbourhood Academy's results
Cultural and social capital
The Academy creates cultural and social capital and brings tangible improvements to the residential communities. Cultural capital is a person's education and what that education yields. Cultural capital includes formal training and specific competencies but also a broader definition of education which enables the individual to understand society's codes and assert himself on the basis of these.
The Neighbourhood Academy links the individual's development of competencies and credits from all levels of the formal adult education system - from basic adult education to bachelor degree programmes - to the specific efforts to improve residential community conditions.
Social capital is the strength of social relations. Social relations include the individual's networks which provide daily support and bridges the gap to insecure areas such as the workplace as well as the social coherence providing a common framework of action and a platform for exchanging and mutually influencing norms in a certain area.
Empowerment and community participation
Because the Neighbourhood Academy offers individual qualification development and creates actual communities and results, it becomes a means of furthering empowerment and individual and group participation in democratic processes.

Stages of the Neighbourhood Academy
Stage 1: Mapping out and analysing residents' needs and requirements
Stage 1 of the Neighbourhood Academy consists in the clarification of residents' wishes and ideas for tangible improvements and activities in their local building complex. This is carried out through interviews with a representative segment of residents and in broad focus groups.
The Academy employs interviewers to perform this task. The project leader, in co-operation with the partners of the projects, is responsible for analysing the interviews.

Stage 2: Establishing project networks and clarifying educational needs
On the basis of the analysed results, project networks are established for the purpose of implementing the desired improvements and activities. Each network is set up with a paid network leader.
The network's first task is to dig a little deeper examining the background for the wishes and making them tangible, and then to develop specific projects on the basis of the gathered wishes. The next step is to clarify the education needs among the participants in order to carry out the planned projects. Teachers are assigned to help the project networks determine which competencies need development and how to plan a teaching module which will meet these requirements.
This could include participation in established education programmes or modules taught directly to the members of one or more networks.

Stage 3: Workings of the project networks
Support is offered to the networks in the realisation of their project. It is regularly assessed whether further competence development is needed and if so, additional training is initiated. The project leader can call in experts and experience and education networks may be formed for all active participants.
Throughout the project, work is carried out to make visible the learning and working processes and actual results. When a project is completed, residents and interested parties are invited to a presentation of its results. It is generally emphasised that results and good stories from projects are made visible to all residents in order to let everyone know that competence development and education can be achieved through participation in the Neighbourhood Academy.

Practical information
The Copenhagen Adult Education Institute has set up collaboration agreements with a number of educational institutions which offer adult education - from basic level education to bachelor degree programmes - in the establishment of the Neighbourhood Academy.
Stages 1 and 2 are expected to last for six months while stage 3 runs for a minimum of two years.
The establishment of a Neighbourhood Academy in a specific local residential area must be negotiated with the Copenhagen Adult Education Institute in the city of Copenhagen.
For additional information, please contact:
CAEI leader Erling Ekegren, Artillerivej 126, 2300 Copenhagen S.
Tel. +45 32 68 73 38, e-mail:erekeg@kff.kk.dk website: www.vpckk.dk

References

Bourdieu, Pierre et al (1999): The Weight of the World. Social Suffering in Contemporary Society. Stanford University Press.

Church, Kathryn et al (2008): Learning through Community, Exploring Participatory Practices. Springer

Kristiansen, Bente & Lars Hulgård (2002): Demokratiets rodnet. Om at søge tilbage i tiden og ud i verden for at finde rødder og grokraft til det repræsentative demokrati. In Riis, P. (ed.). Magtfordelingen mellem interesseorganisationer og det repræsentative demokrati: er der opstået en ubalance, som truer fællesskabet? Copenhagen: JL-Fondet.

Illeris, Knud (2003): Voksenuddannelse og voksenlæring. Roskilde Universitetsforlag

Meisner, Tine (2002): Demokratiske samtaler - lad nutiden følge fremtiden.
In Charlotte Dalsgaard, Tine Meisner & Kaj Voetmann (eds). Værdsat. Værdsættende samtale i praksis. Psykologisk forlag.

Public Dialog Consortium (2001): 7 Principles for Developing Public Dialogue in Communities. www.publicdialogue.org

Wacquant, Loic (1986): The rise of advanced marginality: Notes on its nature and implications. Acta Sociologica, vol 39, no 2.